American Fund Announces $5,000,000 Building Plan for Israel

Five million dollars will be raised by the American Fund for Israel Institutions during the next five years to construct new buildings for some of the leading cultural institutions it has supported in Israel for over a decade, it was announced tonight at the Fund’s annual dinner-concert at the Waldorf Astoria.

A donation of $250,000 by Mr. Frederic R. Mann, leading industrialist of Philadelphia, was announced at the dinner, which was attended by more than 2,000 guests. Mr. Mann is one of the founders of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. His gift will go for the building in Tel Aviv of a Cultural Center “which will be a home for Israel’s culture, and whose major tenant will be the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.”

A substantial gift by Samuel Rubin, patron of the arts, will make possible the building of the first Academy of Music in Israel, it was announced at the dinner. Tonight’s affair climaxed the Fund’s 1953 campaign for $1,807, 540 for the support of agricultural schools, music conservatories, institutions for language and literature, maritime training, art and archaeology museums, a dance group, traditional academies and theatres.

Guest speaker Avraham Harman, Israel Consul General, on behalf of the Israel Government, praised the Fund’s support of cultural and educational services in Israel. He presented, in the name of the institutions, two exquisitely engraved silver goblets – designed and handcrafted in Jerusalem – to Mr. Mann and Mr. Rubin, the guests of honor, and lauded them for their leadership in support of the Fund’s beneficiaries.

Moshe Sharett, Acting Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, in a message to Edward A. Norman, president of the Fund, congratulated the guests of honor for “their outstanding services to the advancement of culture in Israel” and stated that “the erection of new buildings will enable Israel to uphold its high artistic standards and will help it to accomplish the cultural integration of its immigrants, a task which is no less vital than their economic rehabilitation.”